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Air Filter and Vent For Home Basement Shop

As I've posted about here on the blog, I'm working on my home shop. It is going in the basement and may or may not have a window and a wall-hung bench. I'm planning on closing up all the available space with a wall and door, but also planning on filling the joist space above the wall to ensure that the dust from the shop stays in the shop and doesn't carry out into the rest of the basement space.

One concern about that is pressure. Meaning, if I stuff the joist cavaties and seal the door with an external steel door, it is going to be a pressurized space. The walls will be like a balloon everytime I close/open the door.

When I was on the train home one afternoon recently, I saw this air filter/vent in the stairwell coming down on the Metra cars and it gave me an idea. What about making something like this on the inside of the wall: a spot where I can place an air filter. And on the outside - drywall side - of the new wall, I cut a whole for one of these vent covers.

Then, we'd get the filtering required to cut down on the dust being sent into the rest of the basement and we'd avoid having that pressure build in the room when I close the door. It would require working with the carpenter to frame the opening on the inside of the wall to accept the furnace filter. And then cutting a whole on the drywall-side with the right size air vent.

Earlier this winter, I wrote about the old Lou Malnati's menu and mentioned that as I was waiting around for my pie to finish up, I spied an old Chicago Tribune article posted on the wall that included the original Lou Malnati's Italian Salad Dressing Recipe. The Tribune reporter called it "prized". We were set to host a little pizza party over the weekend, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Here's the article as seen through my mobile phone's camera.
I'm not a wine drinker, so the fact that the recipe called for Burgundy wine didn't strike me as odd. I went shopping at Angelo Caputos in Addison - a really incredible shopping experience - and when I got to the wine section I found Burgundy wine was carried ONLY in those HUGE jugs. And they were dirt cheap. The only issue is that needed just 4 ounces. We ended up with a whole-lotta-wine that Nat won't drink.

I've taken the recipe and modified it a bit by eliminating the percentages (60…

Last week, I was in the Elmhurst Lou Malnati's picking up a pie and noticed that they're NOW selling a bottled version of their salad dressing they've called "Lou Malnati's Sweet Vinaigrette". That's the second consumer packaged good they have in their take-out shops - with the first being Lou Malnati's Tomatoes. They sell it in 16 oz jars.

I didn't catch a price, but I did catch a photo of the ingredient list.
Hmmm...comparing that to the Lou Malnati's salad dressing recipe, it seems that there are a few differences. First, the bottled dressing uses corn oil (listed first) and olive oil (listed way down), while the recipe posted in the Tribune back 40+ years uses olive oil. The bottled dressing also has mustard, "natural flavors" and a few different preservat…

I'm Jake Parrillo. This is my website.

I'm Jake Parrillo and I'm using this space here on the web as a journal of sorts. I'm a 39 year old father of three (2 beautiful girls and one bouncing baby boy).

We live out in Downers Grove - in the Western Suburbs of Chicago. I work at Edelman, am an Xoogler and a former Village Trustee. (Yes! I was elected to office 3X!?!) I'm a pizza fanatic, Disney Dad, gardener, and Lionel O-Gauge fanboy. I (sometimes) post links and videos over at at www.parrillo.info.